Application of linear friction welding for joining ultrafine grained aluminium

Abstract Ultrafine grained (UFG) materials are of great potential in industry due to their enhanced mechanical strength and other promising features, such as ability to superplastic deformation or excellent corrosion resistance. Nevertheless, one of the main limitations lies in their low thermal stability, which leads to excessive grain growth at elevated temperature. It influences mainly further processes performed at high temperature, such as joining. It causes detrimental problems during conventional fusion welding, as significant grain growth is observed and therefore the advantages as a result of small average grain size disappear. Therefore, the idea of applying solid state joining pr…